Jennifer MacGregor, Ph. D.

Jenny MacGregor graduated from SLU in 1981 with a degree in geology, her first professional publication being based on her honors thesis and co-authored with her SLU geology advisor, Charlotte Mehrtens. However, after attending the St. Lawrence Kenya Semester in the fall of 1981, Jenny’s interests shifted from geology to the overlapping areas of Psychology, Religious Studies and Anthropology. She created an interdisciplinary program in these three topics at Boston University, graduating with a Master’s in Psychology in May 1986. Always interested in the questions “How do people attribute meaning in their lives?” and “How do our brains produce our minds?,” Jenny went on to employment opportunities in law firms, brain injury rehabilitation facilities, and behavioral therapy for children with autism. Jenny has pursued Ph.D. studies in clinical developmental cognitive neuroscience, and eventually completed her Ph.D. at University of Michigan – Ann Arbor (2006) with a joint degree in psychology and women’s studies. Her research interests include creativity in art, science and education; women in the sciences; adolescent social and identity development since the onset of computer-mediated communication; hook-up culture; and uses of restorative and Intergroup Dialogue methodologies to facilitate difficult conversations across social identity differences.